Setback
by Trollmela
Summary: Rhodey wasn't giving up on Tony. He was leaving him in the hands of professionals, because he wasn't a therapist. He was just a friend.


_This is a sequel to my stories "Progress" and "Tuesdays", but you don't need to read them to understand this story._

 _ **Warnings for depression, reference to drug abuse and possible suicide attempts.**_

 _Overall, however, the story sticks to Rhodey's point of view and shouldn't be too depressing. Still, decide for yourself whether you want to read this story._

* * *

"War Machine, Falcon, you're air support. Cover each other. You're it."

And off they went. Steve and Vision just watched, which was good; Wanda and Natasha were armed with paint guns and went after them.

"Wanda, don't use your powers; remember, just guns now," Steve reminded her when tendrils of red appeared from her fingers.

She nodded and they disappeared. "Yes, Captain."

 _Splat!_

"Damn it! I'm out," Rhodey called.

Natasha smirked at him, looking like a kid who managed to get the candy.

He pointed a metal-encased finger at her. "Next time!"

"Right."

"Divided and conquered," Steve summarized.

"Yup. We need to work on covering each other's back better in the air," Rhodey agreed, watching as Falcon lost ground against the two others. "We're both too used to being the only ones in the air."

He could see Steve nodding.

"Stop firing," Steve ordered. "Falcon, come down." There was no point in continuing the exercise."

"Incoming call from FRIDAY," Rhodey's suit announced just then.

Rhodey frowned. "Accept."

He hadn't had a lot of contact with FRIDAY yet, but if she was calling him directly, there was likely to be trouble.

"Sir? I may need some help with the boss."

"What's he doing?"

"He's sitting outside on the landing platform and won't react to my warnings. If he falls, I'm not sure I can catch him with a suit quickly enough."

"Is he drinking?"

"Yes."

"I'm coming. Alert me immediately if anything changes."

Rhodey started up his repulsors and switched the outside speakers on again.

"Sorry, guys, I've got to go."

He didn't wait for a reply and shot off through the ceiling hatch into the open air.

* * *

Tony's legs were on the wrong side of the roof. That was Rhodey's first thought. He looked pale except for the bags under his eyes; lack of sleep, Rhodey's memory supplied. It was maybe a bad thing that he was able to tell the difference between Tony after serious lack of sleep and Tony after too much drinking. If he really delved into his memories, he would also remember Tony's appearance after getting high.

"Hey honeybear." If nothing else, it was a very lackluster greeting. Mostly, though, it revealed a man who was so far beyond tired that he had mentally entered a totally different place.

"Hey Tony."

He hovered closely in front of Tony in the air, and the other man could probably feel the warmth from the armor.

"I'm not jumping."

"That's good. Can we move this inside?"

For a long, long moment, Tony didn't reply or react in any other way. Then, his fingers curled into the ground of the platform and he scooted back away from the edge, leaving the single empty bottle on the ground.

He wobbled a bit, but he made it to his feet, and Rhodey flew forward and set the armor down on the roof. He was safely between Tony and a drop of over a hundred feet now. He followed Tony across the platform, hesitating a bit when it didn't open under his armor.

"It doesn't work. You'll have to take the armor off manually."

"Okay. That's why there's more than one way out of it."

The penthouse looked mostly normal, except for where it didn't. There were cracks in the floor and in the walls, cracks Rhodey remembered from Ultron. The big mess had been cleared almost immediately, but mostly the Avengers had been focused on finding the android. The superficial repairs had been put on the backburner for when someone actually had time to deal with them.

"Has Pepper not been by?"

"She wanted a break."

"Okay," Rhodey repeated. "You haven't called anyone to repair all of this?"

Tony shook his head. Rhodey's look around for bottles didn't reveal anything. Maybe Tony had stuck to just the one then.

Once he had extradited himself from the armor, his nose was met with the smell of stale sweat and the general stench of unwashed skin.

"How long have you been awake?"

Tony shrugged. "What day is it?"

"Thursday. FRIDAY?" He shook his head a bit. "Your next AI needs a different name. FRIDAY, when did Tony last eat, sleep or shower?"

"It's been between two and four days respectively, depending on your definition of eating, sleeping and taking a shower."

"Right. You must be hungry."

"I'm not hungry," Tony snapped so sharply Rhodey froze.

He inhaled. "Take a shower, Tony. Please. Leave the door open. I'll see if I can find some crackers or something."

He needed to pee, too. Flying from upstate hadn't provided him with the opportunity for a bathroom break.

After getting his own business done, he found some easily digestible snacks and put them all together on a tray. Not knowing if Tony would try to sleep first, he took them with him to the master bedroom.

The door to the en suite was open by a crack, and the water was running. Rhodey quietly checked the drawers and wondered whether it was already time to lock away razors and kitchen knives. He didn't find any guns, but Rhodey had been away for too long to know whether Tony usually kept one here. Considering his AI and high security, he had never been one of those guys who kept one in the bedside drawer.

He briefly returned to the living room.

"When was Tony's last therapy appointment, Jarv- FRIDAY?"

"There hasn't been one during my existence as far as I'm aware. The calendar indicates that the last one was two months ago."

Shit. Before Ultron then. If Tony was still on medication, he might even have run out by now. He returned to the bedroom and knocked once on the bathroom door before slowly swinging it open.

Tony's slumped back was turned towards him. He was still in the shower, but sitting mostly motionlessly on the floor. Carefully, Rhodey opened the shower door. Tony flinched.

"You done?"

"Yeah."

There was the fresh smell of soap in the air, so Rhodey was willing to believe him. He reached in and turned the water off, while grabbing a towel with the other hand.

"Come on. Let's get you out."

He was reminded abruptly of MIT, and not in a good way. That was where it had started for him. He'd known Tony for a while by then, but it had been the first time he had been around when Tony had had an ... episode. At first, he'd thought he was high or drunk; or tired; or just feeling lazy. It had taken him a while and a nice medical student from Harvard to learn differently.

"Dry off. I'll find you some clothes."

At least he followed directions. Rhodey, meanwhile, dug through Tony's underwear drawer in his closet, and brought back sweats as well. Tony had made it to the bed and was fingering a cracker.

"Still not hungry?"

"Not really," Tony replied. "Thanks, honeybear." He got dressed.

"Wanna try? For me?"

Tony smirked hollowly. "You gonna make airplane noises?"

"Do I have to?"

The other man looked away but crammed a cracker into his mouth.

They settled on the bed against the headboard, the tray of food between them. Rhodey was hungry, at least, so he ate some, but always took care to leave whatever Tony showed an interest in.

"You shouldn't be here."

"I think this is exactly where I should be, baby genius."

Tony winced; that had been Rhodey's nickname for him, back at MIT, in retaliation for all the other nicknames Tony had invented for him.

"How are they?"

Rhodey hesitated. Was this one of those things which would make Tony worse or not?

"They're doing okay."

"Good."

Tony didn't say anything else and dropped off into sleep eventually. Rhodey couldn't tell how light it was, so he didn't move for a while.

Everything he'd seen so far reminded him of Tony's worst episode at MIT. At the time, Rhodey had done what he could, aching under his own classes and keeping Tony's motivation up to go to his. Things had appeared to get better, and then Thanksgiving break had come around. Rhodey had needed it. The following year, he would offer that Tony came to his place. That year, he'd gratefully accepted that Tony had other plans and left. After the break, when he had gotten back to their shared dorm room, he'd been just in time to call an ambulance. He'd never quite been able to decide whether he believed the overdose to have been an accident, and he considered it a miracle that Tony had even gotten clean afterwards. That was when he'd first met Howard Stark's business partner, Obadiah Stane. The cold bluish light of the ceiling lamps had done nothing to make him look like a warm-hearted godfather, but at least he showed more of an interest in Tony's well-being than his father.

"I don't want your money."

"Really kid? Seems to me that students could always use it."

"I'm not accepting bribes because I helped a friend."

Stane had eyed him with a calculating look in his eyes. "Tony talks about you. A lot."

Rhodey had straightened his spine. It was a good thing, he had thought, that he was in ROTC. Stane had no right to be more intimidating than the old Vietnam vet who was his Colonel.

"I get that you're his friend. And I'm glad you called the ambulance and called me in," the man had said in a soothing tone.

That hadn't been strictly true; Rhodey had called Jarvis, Tony's butler. He would have called Howard, but he hadn't gotten through to him; or Tony's mum.

"Tony's young. Nobody wants him to lose out because of one ... episode. You understand what I'm saying?"

"You're saying that nobody is ever allowed to know about this."

Stane had nodded and patted Rhodey on the shoulder. He'd swept it all under the rug, and, a week later, Tony had been back in class. Nothing had ever gotten out to the press.

Rhodey got off the bed, looking back to check he hadn't disturbed Tony in his sleep. He took the tray back into the kitchen and refilled it to put it on Tony's nightstand together with a glass of water. It was just 7 pm. He might get lucky.

"Dr. Davis? This is James Rhodes, a friend of Tony Stark's. I think we may have a problem. Could you possibly come by?"

* * *

Bright female laughter reached the kitchen, then Wanda and Natasha entered, having just come back from their shopping trip in the City. Rhodey couldn't help a little smirk at the bags from Victoria's Secret, Macy's and some more expensive boutique stores he knew vaguely from Tony and Pepper. Superheroes really weren't that different from regular people, and he guessed that Wanda mostly enjoyed the same things young American women did.

"Hey Rhodey!" Natasha greeted him and ruthlessly squeezed past him to get something to drink.

"Hey! I see you had a successful trip," he commented, eying the bags.

Wanda smiled, and Rhodey went back to the living room where everyone except Vision was spread out over various pieces of furniture. The women followed not long after with their drinks.

"We passed by the tower and thought we'd surprise Tony. But FRIDAY told us that he isn't in and won't be for some time," Natasha said. "Do you know where he went, Rhodes? I haven't heard from him in a while."

"He'll be out for a couple of weeks. I'm sure he'll call when he's up to it."

"Oh? SI business?"

Rhodey didn't reply.

"He's not on business," Wanda stated, watching Rhodey closely.

Rhodey mentally cursed and glared at her. "I don't think you need to know. And it doesn't concern anyone else either."

If nothing else, he now had everyone's attention, which was frankly the last thing he'd wanted. Wanda glared back, huffed, and left the room.

"What's this Rhodey?" Steve asked deceptively calmly.

"If I have to choose between Wanda's feelings getting hurt and my best friend's health, I'll always choose him." Rhodey stared back at Steve without backing down. This was a line he wouldn't cross, and he needed Steve to know that.

Steve put down his book. "What's going on? Where's Tony?"

"He's away. Probably three more weeks, maybe more."

"Does it have anything to do with his depression?" Natasha asked frankly.

"Okay, I think I'm going to go, too," Sam stood up.

"It's nothing personal, Sam," Rhodey told him. He liked the guy, and if Rhodey were to tell anyone outside of the people already in the know about Tony, it would be him. But it wasn't his decision.

"I get that. But I don't know Tony Stark as well as the rest of you do, and his ... anything is none of my business."

"Thanks."

"Yeah."

They waited for the door to click shut behind him.

"So?" Steve insisted.

"We're his friends," Natasha added. "You went to the tower a week ago very suddenly. What's going on? Do we need to worry? If he's in a bad way, I'd appreciate knowing that so I can watch out for him."

Rhodey smiled a bit. "I've been trying to watch out for him for years, Natasha, way longer than you knew him. I always did what I could, and, believe me, I often wish I could have done better." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I didn't think that there was anything I, or you, could do to help him this time. I did that in college once, and neither one of us were better off for it. So, this time, I'm leaving it to the professionals."

Natasha gaped. "He's in hospital? Did he-"

"No, it never went that far. He's, well, physically he's fine. He's undergoing inpatient treatment for his depression at a very discreet, well-protected and expensive facility."

A heavy exhale drew Rhodey's gaze from Natasha to Steve.

"Darn." The blond was looking down into his lap and rubbed his hands over his face. "I should have asked, I should have checked up-"

"Don't go there, Steve," Rhodey interrupted him. "Listen, I've seen his various ups and downs since college. For long periods of time he was doing so well that I thought he was finally past it. When you guys got together, after the alien attack, his PTSD aside he was doing great! You were good for him! You gave him the motivation to see a therapist and go back on medication. Sure, there were bad days, but overall he was a lot better at taking care of himself than I'd ever seen him before. But Ultron, Ultron set him back. By a lot. Yes, some of it was his fault, but Wanda had a hand in it, too, with her mind manipulation. I respect her as a team mate, I know she saw reason and helped you in the end and that at least half of the original Avengers got their second chance as well back in the day. I think she deserved hers, don't ever doubt that. But she doesn't have any right to Tony's personal life." He gave them both long looks to make sure they understood. When they didn't argue, he went on.

"As for what you could have done: believe me, I've thought the same thing too many times. That I should have done more or something different. But, over the years, I've learnt that I can't fix him no matter how hard I try. I'm not a therapist. You aren't either. And finally, a lot of work has to be done by Tony himself. When I saw him last week he reminded me too much of when he was at his worst at MIT. I called his therapist, and he, Tony and I sat down and discussed his options. In the end, he agreed that short-term inpatient treatment would be the best for him right now. It was his choice, but I'm glad he made it."

"Have you talked since then?" Natasha asked. "How long is he going to be there?"

"Tony agreed to four weeks, but he has the choice to stay longer. Either way, it won't be a long-term stay; it's only to help him through a rough spot in an environment where he's safe and getting whatever support he needs. We've talked on the phone a couple of times now, and he can have visitors, too, but he wanted to settle in first."

"Does he want to see us?" Steve asked.

"He hasn't said. I'll ask next time we talk, but whatever he says, please respect that. Maybe he'll agree to talk to you over the phone, maybe not. Maybe he'll be fine with you visiting, maybe not. Don't call his cell phone and leave dozens of messages. He was fine with you knowing where he is, but he didn't say anything else."

"No problem," the blond replied. "We'll leave the choice completely up to him."

* * *

Sam was a good man. Rhodey had liked him from the start and considered him to be one of the best additions to the new Avengers. He knew what a successful operation required, and, at least on the ground, Rhodey had a better idea of how Sam would react because they'd undergone similar training. In that sense, he felt closer to Sam than Steve, Natasha, Wanda, or Vision, especially as the latter two were still unused to fighting with a team.

"You know, if you ever need someone to talk to, you're welcome to talk my ear off."

Rhodey looked up from the onions he was stirring in a pan.

"It's not my place-"

"That's not what I'm talking about." Sam leant onto the counter on the other side of the kitchen isle. "Like I said, I don't know Stark. You, on the other hand, must have seen a lot as his friend."

Rhodey laughed. "You have no idea. You haven't experienced all of Vegas if you haven't been with Tony. He'll leave you to gamble in the casino though."

Sam grinned. "Sounds like quite a story."

Rhodey rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"I mean it, James. It's tough watching a friend struggle. I'm not there for Tony, he's got his own therapists. But, if you want me to, I'd be there for you."

Rhodey swept the chicken off the cutting board into the pan with the back of the knife. He looked over to Sam.

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

He meant it. He wasn't a fool; if he'd learnt anything throughout his friendship with Tony Stark, it was that he needed to take care of himself, too; including his own mental health.

Sam nodded. "You forgot to cut the bell peppers."

Shit, he had. He threw the other man a dark look. "If you want bell peppers in here, slice them yourself, Wilson!"

Sam saluted smartly. "Sir, yes, Sir!"

* * *

 _Notes:_

 _I'm glad I had an excuse to include_ _ _Obadiah Stane_ here. In Iron Man 1, I really liked his creepiness, the way he appears to care for and support Tony. It was obvious that Tony trusted him for a long time, and he probably liked him more than his father. I wondered a lot while writing him here when Obadiah decided to kill Tony. I can see him as paying more attention to Tony than Howard while he was young. I guess that at some point he found Tony too troublesome to keep around._

 _In general, short-term inpatient treatment for depression is an option and I know people who did that or considered it. I lived in New York for a while and remember a friend, a nurse, complaining about the mental health support there - or lack thereof. I didn't find a lot looking for a suitable place for Tony in New York state, although some other states came up, so I avoided naming any particular place._


End file.
